| AdminHistory | Born Odessa, 1880; educated in Russian schools; went to Berne and Rome in 1898, where he studied law and served as foreign correspondent of two Odessa dailies; joined editorial staff of 'Odesskiya Novosti', 1901; helped found a Jewish self-defence group, 1903, and travelled around Russia urging self-defence on Jewish communities; delegate to the Sixth Zionist Congress, 1903; became the foremost Zionist lecturer and journalist in Russia in the period before 1914; member of the editorial board of the Zionist journal 'Raszvet'; appointed editor of four publications in Constantinople and entrusted with political work in Ottoman circles by the World Zionist Organization, 1909; toured Jewish communities of Russia lecturing on the Hebrew language and advocating the establishment of Hebrew day schools; sent to Western Europe as a roving correspondent by the Moscow liberal daily 'Russkiya Vedomosti', 1914; advocated founding of a Jewish legion in Alexandria, Rome, Paris, London and Russia, 1914-1916; put in charge of recruitment to the legion, 1917; Lieutenant, 38th Battalion of Royal Fusiliers, 1917; organised the Haganah in Jerusalem and arrested by British authorities, 1920, but granted amnesty later in the year; member of Board of Directors of Keren Hayesod and the Zionist Executive, 1920; left the Zionist Organisation, 1923; founded World Union of Zionist Revisionists, 1925; lived in Paris, 1925-1936, except for a brief period in Jerusalem as director of the Judaea Insurance Company and editor of the daily 'Do'ar ha-Yom', 1928-1929, after which his visa for Palestine was cancelled; launched campaign and an organization called Af-al-pi for illegal immigration to Palestine, 1932; President of the New Zionist Organisation, 1935; head of ha-Irgun ha-tseva'i le-umi (National Military Organisation), 1936; advocated the creation of a Jewish army in Britain and the USA after the outbreak of World War II; died New York City, 1940. Publications include: Russian plays 'Krov' (1901), 'Ladno' (1902) and 'Chuzhbina' (1922); Russian novels 'Samson the Nazarite' (1926) and Pyatero (1936); Russian translations of H N Bialik's 'Masa Nemirov' (1904) and 'Songs and Poems' (1910); a Hebrew translation of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven' (1910); 'Targumim' (1924); the first Hebrew geographical atlas (with S Perlman, 1925); 'ha-Mivta ha-Ivri' (1930); 'Taryag milim' (1949); and articles in Yiddish in the Warsaw Jewish press and in the New York 'Jewish Morning Journal'; he also wrote several patriotic songs. |